CHERUB: Earth's Last Stand
by Malco Clay
Summary: 2. Meeting "Hello William." Said the man. "Who are you?" William asked "And why was everyone saying 'Can't talk to orange.'" "Calm down, William." The man said "My name is Dr. McAfferty but most people just call me Mac. I'm the Chairman of a division of MI5 called CHERUB." Mac looked to be in his sixties. He wore a suit and dress pants and it looked like he could afford whatever
1. 1 Strange

Cherub: Earth's Last Stand

1. Strange

Will woke to a intense, blinding light in his eyes. He rolled over on his bed to block the brightness from his eyes. His head was killing him.

"Oooowwww…" he moaned softly. He regretted the amount of beer he had drank last night. Then he remembered the truth, he didn't have any beer last night, since he was only 10 years old. He opened his eyes and panicked. He wasn't in his room. He wasn't in any sort of room he knew of. He sat up slowly. He was on a double bed with a small bottle of colourless pills on his bedside table. There was a note beside the bottle. The note read:

**The pills are for your headache.**

He fumbled for the bottle but accidentally knocked it off the table. He then fell off the bed while trying to reach down and grab them. He tried to read the label on the side, to find out how many pills he was supposed to take. He had to squint to see the amount that was required. It either said toes, or two, He wasn't quite sure.. He took two pills and swallowed them. They had a horrible banana taste to them. He suddenly realized he was busting to pee. He stood up and looked around. There was a flat screen telly tv at the front front of his bed and a very fancy chair and table next to the window. The chair and table had floral pattern that resembled the curtains he had at his Granny's' place. Orange and red tulips, with vines all around them. He realized that he was homesick already.

He looked around the room for a bathroom but saw nothing that resembled a bathroom, but he did notice a sliding door. He opened it and found a large room with a toilet and bath and everything a bathroom needs in it, which lead him to believe that he was here for a reason besides being a prisoner He found that his headache was subsiding, showing that the pills _were_ in fact _not_ poison. Now that he could finally think straight, he remembered what had happened.

His dad had died a couple of weeks ago. After that he had been sent to an horrible place; The orphanage. Or at least, if a giant heap of bricks with a dumpyard next to it counts as one. When he got there the other boys instantly recognised him as an easy target and pounced. The only kid who he wasn't being teased by was Joanna; although most called her Jo. She was 11 and seemed less than thrilled to be living in the orphanage. Will still thought her luckier than him because the boys left her alone. Will had learnt why when one of the older boys had tried to hit on her and ended up hanging off the upstairs balcony, when Will had asked her how she had learnt to fight like that and she had told him them that her dad was a karate instructor.

He stood up and stumbled out the door. He saw a kid about 13 years old walk by and called out to him,

"Where the hell am I!?"

"Can't talk to orange." Said the boy,

"What? You call that an answer?! I just woke up in a completely random place and there is no freaking explanation for anything? At Least show me where I'm supposed to go!" Yelled Will

"Can't talk to orange." said the boy again, but he pointed to the elevator.

"Finally!" Will shouted, frustratedly while jogging towards the elevator. He pressed the button to call down the elevator. When it finally arrived, he stepped inside to see a boy that looked around 15 years old in a black shirt with a boy with wings in the center and someone who looked around nine years-old in a red shirt with the same logo.

"Where do I go?" Will asked, "And please don't say 'Can't talk to orange' or I will FREAKING KILL YOU!"

"Can't talk to orange." he said but held up a number one on his finger.

"Cheers… I guess." Will sighed and pressed the button to go to floor one. The elevator doors opened and he stepped out into a place that looked like a lobby. The floor was covered in ivy and moss that was poking through the tiles. Will could tell that all the greenery were placed there on purpose. There were four fountains spaced evenly around the ground. He saw kids of all ages wearing all different colours of shirts. Will went up to the nearest kid he saw The kid was a girl with a red shirt. She looked around Will's age and was drawing. "What am I supposed to do n-"

"Can't talk to orange." she interrupted him.

"Oh my FREAKING GOD!" he shouted as loud as his lungs would allow him. The girl smiled at him mischievously, and it almost seemed like she was enjoying ticking him off. Will stood up and turned around to look for another kid.

"Oi! Kid! What am I supposed to do now?" he shouted at a kid who looked around 13, with a navy blue shirt

"Can't talk to orange." The kid responded. But he pointed at a building in the middle of the lobby.

Will walked over to the building and opened the door. He saw a woman at the desk. The woman looked up.

"Ah, You must be Will. The doctor has been expecting you. Just head in to the door to your left." He walked to the door and knocked on it. He heard footsteps come to the door, and then the it swung open. He entered the room and a desk in the far right corner of the room. The room looked very clean, with only a few things in the room besides the desk. These items included a dresser to the left of the room, a bookshelf on the wall next to the desk,, a couple of chairs, and a few pots with plants in them. The entire room was painted white, the whole room was covered with greyish carpet with no designs . It felt very cold, as if there was a soft, cool wind that was flowing through the room. Then the man spoke.


	2. 2 Meeting

2. Meeting

"Hello William." Said the man.

"Who are you?" William asked "And why was everyone saying 'Can't talk to orange.'"

"Calm down, William." The man said "My name is Dr. McAfferty but most people just call me Mac. I'm the Chairman of a division of MI5 called CHERUB." Mac looked to be in his sixties. He wore a suit and dress pants and it looked like he could afford whatever he liked.

"Then why do you need me?" William Asked.

"CHERUB uses kids as agents, and you seem like a perfect recruit." William finally decided to stand up and plop himself down in a chair.

"What did you do with my old clothes?" Will Asked.

"You didn't have any when we collected you."

"That's probably 'cause you kidnapped me in the dead of night you group of creeps"

"You should be glad that we got you out of the orphanage when we did." Mac said.

He had hated it at the orphanage so he agreed with Mac.

"Fine. I'll listen to what you have to say." Will sighed grumpily.

"Thank you Will." Mac sounded relieved that will had calmed down "As I said before, CHERUB is a division of MI5 that uses children as agents. The reason we use children as spies are because drug-dealers and criminal masterminds never suspect children to be spying on them. Anyways, if you decide to stay you will be living in a room like this. The only kids here are aged under 17. The red shirts are for kids who haven't passed basic training. Basic training is 100 days of intensive exercise that you have to pass to start doing missions. You have to be at least ten years old to try basic training and even then many don't pass. The reason no one would talk to you was because you were wearing an orange shirt. Orange means guest, you need clearance from me to talk to a guest"

"So what am I gonna do now?"

"If you want to join CHERUB then you have to pass five tests before Basic Training, for you you have to pass six."

"Why do I Have to do six?"

"because you have a certain strength that I want to test" As Mac said this Will tried to figure out what that talent was.

"Whatever. What are those tests?"

"Well, the first one is to kill this chicken." Mac said while he lifted a cage with a chicken inside.

"I'm not killing that." Will gasped.

"Why not?" Mac asked

"Because it's cruel." Will said simply.

"But you would eat it?"

"No I wouldn't I'm vegetarian, genius." Will said sarcastically.

"So you aren't gonna kill it?"

"No."

Mac stood up and began walking out the door.

"Get ready for your second test." he called back.

As Will entered the Dojo he marveled at the money that it must have cost to build it.

"In here." Mac says, entering a large room with mats on the floor "And take your trainers and socks off." As James entered the Dojo he saw a boy around 10 or 11 standing in the middle punching a bag.

"Bruce!" Mac shouted. "We got another recruit for you!"

"What's his name?" Bruce called back, taking a drink of water.

"My name's Will." Will muttered.

"Sorry?" Bruce asked

"My name is Will." Will said louder.

"Well, _Will_" Bruce said "Your second test will be to fight me. I personally doubt you will win, so feel free to submit after a while." Will was absolutely awful at fighting as he had proved countless times at the orphanage.

He stepped onto the pale yellow mats that were facing off against Bruce. Before Will knew it Bruce had him pinned to the ground and his arm pulled behind his back being painfully twisted.

"Bruce wins round one!" Mac shouts. This round Will decided to attack first. He swung a wild punch at Bruce but it backfired and he was knocked to the ground. He felt a foot pressing against his throat. He tried to breath but he couldn't. He was feeling very light headed. He tapped on the ground as hard as he could. Bruce let his foot off of Will's throat. Will let out a cough.

"I can't do this anymore." Will sobbed. "I submit."

Mac and Bruce helped Will up.

"You OK?" Bruce asked.

"I guess." Will replied. Mac took Will to a room with a desk in the middle. On top of the desk were a sheet of paper, a pencil, and an eraser.

"This is a test of your intelligence. Please sit down and try to finish it in one hour. Starting, Now." As Mac said these final words he started a timer on his desk.

When Will first saw the test he had thought it would be a completely boring school test filled with obvious answers that only the thickest of idiots would get wrong. But instead, he found questions that belonged on College tests. As he filled out the questions he nursed his aching arm and throat. The test wasn't just hard, it was boring and hard. The worst combo. He really badly needed to rest his brain, but he knew that if he wanted to stay away from the orphanage, he needed to give it his best shot. It seemed like he had spent a million years on it already, but glancing at the clock, he still had half an hour to go.

An hour later Mac stood up.

"Put down your pencil, the test's over." Will stretched and sighed as he stood up slowly. He had only finished about about half of the seamlessly endless questions.

"Holy crap I'm aching." He mumbled softly.

"Well. you'd better find a way to avoid your aching, considering that you have two more tests to finish" Mac smiled.

"Seriously?" Will gasped as he stood up. "What are they?"

"You'll see in about 10 minutes." Mac laughed.

Ten minutes later Will was staring up at an obstacle course elevated about fifty feet up. Two kids were standing there.

"Climb." Said one of the kids pointing at a ladder. Will stepped on to the ladder and began to climb up slowly. Once he got to the top he looked ahead. First up there was a very small wooden support leading to a platform. After the platform there were small wooden platforms evenly spaced apart that you had to jump from to get to the next platform

When Will was younger he was terrified of heights, now, he just didn't like them. As he took his first step onto the support, he felt a massive rush of adrenaline. He had always had good balance but wasn't sure if he could make it all the way across to the next platform. He took another step, willing himself not to fall. About half way through a strong gust of wind hit him hard. He fell off but managed to grab the support. Now he was dangling with one hand, fifty feet up. He reached up and grabbed the thin piece of wood that was the only thing keeping him from falling.

"Is there a net?" He shouted at the boy who climbed up to the top.

"You'll find out if you fall!" He shouted back, smiling evilly. Will pulled as hard as he could and lifted his body up on to the beam and slowly stood up. Sweat was pouring down from his hair into his eyes. He started to walk again and finally managed to get to the other side.

As Will stood up he coughed, hard. He turned to the platforms. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder he turned around and saw the boy who had called back to him when he had asked if there was a net.

"How the hell did you get across so fast?" Will coughed.

"I've done this a thousand times." The kid laughed "By the way, my name's George."

"Will." Will responded.

"Nice to meet you _Will _now start jumping." As George said this Will turned around to the platforms. Will got a couple of meters running start and the leaped. He hit the platform hard. He stood up and laughed in triumph. He turned to the next and realized that he couldn't get a running start. He sighed and jumped. Midair he realized he wouldn't make it. His faced smashed into the wooden platform and blood exploded from his nose and mouth. He screamed in pain and fear as he plunged towards the ground.

Will hit a net and thanked his luck. He let out a sob of pain, despair, and relief as tears mixed with blood streaked down his face. He saw george hop off the platform and land in the net beside him.

"Damn that's a lot of blood." George half laughed. Will slowly pushed himself off the net and hopped onto the ground.

"Mac! Will might have broken his nose! He definitely lost a tooth." The other kid shouted.

"Thank you Elliot." Mac said while handing Will a cloth.

"We're gonna have to skip the swimming test, so I'll just ask you, can you swim a hundred metres?"

"I'm pretty sure." Will held the cloth to his nose while he said this. Mac led Will to the change rooms to wash his face before the final test. On the way he saw a couple kids with several different colour shirts.

"In CHERUB the rank of the agent is marked by their shirts, red for those who haven't passed basic training, orange for guest, grey for qualified agents, navy for kids who have performed outstanding in a mission and black for kids who have performed outstanding in several missions. Oh, there's also white for kids who have retired from CHERUB." Mac explained,

"Interesting" Will muttered, running his tongue over the place that his tooth used to be.

After washing up and waiting for about an hour for him to stop bleeding, Will was led to a room with black walls. There was a screen at the front and surround sound speakers. A girl around 16 and wearing a black T-shirt walked into the room. She closed the door and punched him hard in the stomach. He cried out and gasped for air.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" he choked, she turned and said in a level voice,

"We were going to test your smarts, but I have a different idea." She said while smiling evilly. She flipped out a butterfly knife and approached. As Will heard this he heard a slight quaver in her voice. She was nervous.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you, a**hole." he growled. He was taking a massive risk by this, but if he could tick her off enough then he might be able to hear her talk more, and if that happened he could tell if she was lying.

As a kid, Will had always had a sense if people were lying or telling the truth, and as he got older he figured out more signs of lying and nervousness. He could tell if someone was lying about whether it was there pencil or not or if they fancied one person or the other. It had come in useful and incredible amount of times.

As the teenager approached she was taken aback by the response and stopped.

"What did you call me?"

"I called you and a**hole." Will had definitely heard a waiver. She was lying. He laughed,

"What's this test actually about?" he asked while standing up. As he stood the girl lunged. The knife hit him in the arm. He braced himself for the pain but all he felt was a hard thump against his arm as if he had been hit by a stick. He grunted in pain and realized that it was dull. He grabbed at the knife but was hit in the head by the handles. He saw lights popping in front and fell to the ground. The black shirt reached in to her pocket and pulled a needle out of it. She pushed it into Will's arm and he almost instantly fell unconscious.


End file.
